Device for altering the immersion depth in fluids by means of a height-adjustable, immersible false bottom

ABSTRACT

AN ARRANGEMENT FOR PROVIDING BATHS VARIABLE IN DEPTH BY MEANS OF A FALSE BOTTOM ACTUATED BY SEPARATELY ACCOMMODATED HYDRAULIC MACHINERY, WHEREBY NO CONTAMINATION OF THE FLUID IN THE BATH BY OIL OR THE LIKE FROM THE MACHINERY IS POSSIBLE. SAFETY LOCKING MEANS PRECLUDING UNFORESEEN LOWERING OF THE BOTTOM IS ALSO PROVIDED.

Jan. 12, 1971 5 3,553,743

DEVICE FOR ALTERING THE IMMERSION DEPTH IN FLUIDS BY MEANS OF 7 A HEIGHT- ADJUSTABLE, IMMERSIBLE FALSE BOTTOM Filed Jan. 8, 1968' 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 12, 1971 A. LODIGE 3,553,743

DEVICE FOR ALTERING THE IMMERSION DEPTH IN FLUIDS BY MEANS OF A HEIGHT-ADJUSTABLE, IMMERSIBLE FALSE BOTTOM Filed Jan. 8, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig.

Jan. 12, 1971 v A. LODIGE 3,553 74 DEVICE FOR ALTERING THE IMMERSION DEPTH IN FLUIDS BY MEANS OF A HEIGHT-ADJUSTABLE, IMMERSIBLE FALSE BOTTOM Filed Jan. 8, 1968 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 Jan. 1971 A. LODIGE 3,553,743

VICE FOR ERIN HE I ERSION DEPTH IN FLUIDS BY MEANS OF A GHT-A UST E, IMMERSIBLE FALSE BOT M Filed Jan. 8, 1968 4 S ts-Sheet 4 Iii I; 1H? I 1 b9 [1) 1 7 'F I H 19 ll United States Patent 3 553,743 DEVICE FOR ALTERIl lG THE IMMERSION DEPTH IN FLUIDS BY MEANS OF A HEIGHT-ADJUST- ABLE, IMMERSIBLE FALSE BOTTOM Alois Liidige, Frankfurterweg 13, Padeborn, Germany Filed Jan. 8, 1968, Ser. No. 696,225 Claims priority, application Germany, Jan. 11, 1967, L 55,472 Int. Cl. E0411 3/16 U.S. Cl. 4-172.13 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An arrangement for providing baths variable in depth by means of a false bottom actuated by separately accommodated hydraulic machinery, whereby no contamination of the fluid in the bath by oil or the like from the machinery is possible. Safety locking means precluding unforeseen lowering of the bottom is also provided.

The invention relates to a device for the alteration of the liquid depth in a bath by means of a height-adjustable, immersible false bottom supported from below, e.g. in acid, lye, pickling, cooling and hardening baths, and preferably in swimming or instructional swimming baths.

It is known, by lifting or lowering a false bottom, to alter the depth in a liquid container. The methods employed for this are, however, associated with substantial defects. The false bottoms are, for example, borne by a central column or by one or more vertically operating hydraulic cylinders.

The oil-coated piston rod transfers continuously to the bath medium, depending on sealing, oil traces.

If the working cylinders are driven by water, the typical disadvantages arise so that nowadays there has been a change to oil hydraulic machinery.

If a high degree of freedom from trouble is required, even with hydraulic pistons, locking arrangements must also be employed. That is particularly necessary in swimming baths and in chemical baths, e.g. dechroming or hardening baths.

Further embodiments are known in which a false bottorn is moved up and down by means of pinions and several racks fitted in the walls of the bath. By this means, synchronised movement of the false bottom is satisfactorily possible. Due to the connecting gear necessarily lying in water, the danger exists that water and oil may be interchanged due to temperature variations. The smooth surface of the bath walls is interrupted and therefore an accident-free marginal sealing against compression dangers is not possible. On grounds of load capacity, the racks must be adequately dimensioned so that at this place a high-grade shear danger exists.

For these reasons, a height adjustment of the false bottom in swimming baths is not permissible during use.

A further reason why the false bottom may not be adjusted during use consists in the fact that, in the event of breakage of an oil pipeline or particularly a gear failure, a spontaneous dropping would take place so that a bath superintendent would never be in a position to rescue all 50 to 100 non'swimmers in a short time.

However, particularly in instructional swimming baths, learning to swim would be considerably facilitated if the bath superintendent could quickly set the false bottom higher or lower during swimming. The requirements for an ideal swimming bath consequently are to have smooth bath walls in order to be able to fit a reliable, accidentproof marginal seal, to have absolute security against unforeseen subsidence and against contamination by oiltraces so that, by the elimination of accident sources, height-adjustability during use would be legally allowed.

Patented Jan. 12, 1971 The object of the invention solves these problems in that the driving means is accommodated separately from the bath by means of a partition wall in the bottom or in the side wall with a sealing partition wall and with excess pressure on the bath side, in which care is taken that no oil-coated parts penetrate into the bath medium. The safety precaution against unexpected subsidence of the platform, no matter for what reasons, is achieved in that a locking device, which is also controlled by means of a speed sensor, comes into operation, as is usual in elevators. In elevators, however, no compulsory prescriptions are necessary against slow subsidence because a slowly falling elevator cage does not lead to accidents. The speed sensor leads only to the operation of the looking device or of the safety brake, if a prescribed speed is exceeded. The locking mechanism, on account of the speed sensor, remains disengaged if a prescribed speed is not exceeded because normal speeds are necessary for functioning. It is conceivable that with oil leakage or gear failure, on the signal ascend, descent occurs.

For these reasons, in swimming baths or treatment dipping baths, a direction of movement sensor is provided which, conveniently, allows the locking device to come into operation by means of an electrical pulse, although, during satisfactory functioning, the signal disengage is present in the normal way. The direction sensor must, by its signal, override normal functioning.

All bearings within the bath are preferably manufactured from suitable plastic material so that no oil lubrication is necessary. Mechanical linkages, bearings, spindles and levers are regarded as technically reliable.

The lifting drive of the false bottom can be undertaken according to the invention in any desired way, e.g. by means of rams or rotary transmissions and synchronised elbow lever, roller lifting or scissor lifting constructions. The scissor lifting construction can be placed in the bath medium or also in a cellar space, in which case rams carry the false bottom and are led through a partition wall free of oil. The locking or stopping device has, on account of the gearing, always to take up particularly large forces. In a swimming bath of normal size, the hydraulic power, and consequently, the locking power with convenient gearing, is of the order of to 200 tons. A normal locking device with a correspondingly heavy bolt would, on considerations of strength, call for large graduation. For this reason, a multi-tooth locking device is fitted wherein the graduation can be sufliciently small. On grounds of the great strength, a saw-tooth form is conveniently used. The locking elements can consist of a grooved shaft and grooved segment or of a threaded spindle and nut segment, e.g. having a third of the circumference of the nut. For the purposes of smooth engagement, the inside diameter of the segment part should be reworked to the outer diameter of the grooved shaft and/or to the threaded outer diameter-displaced by the depth of penetration of the threadso that all edges come into engagement simultaneously.

In the cases where the hydraulic forces are extraordinarily large, the thrust blocks, by means of direct connecting diagonal struts, should intercept the hydraulic forces at the working cylinder and at the locking device casing. In such cases, in which on spatial grounds a rotary transmission through the bath wall is provided, a multi-tooth locking device is likewise brought into operation.

The arrangement of machine elements according to the invention, such as the drive cylinder, directional sensor and speed sensor in a liquid-free space separate from the swimming bath, brings with it the particular advantage that all machine elements are easily accessible at any time. By this means, maintenance and repair work can be carried out without the necessity, in swimming baths 3 for example, of letting out the water. Maintenances and inspections are therefore carried out more frequently and thoroughly. In large baths, for example, the re-heating of the water, which after repair to the driving element in the usual installations must be supplied afresh, is eliminated along with the normal long out-of-service interval.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the invention but in no restrictive sense.

FIG. 1 shows a swimming bath with a power-plant room alongside, wherein the machine elements according to the invention are represented and in which, in the bath, a roller lever lifting technique is employed. In addition, the platform roller guide and the accident-proof marginal seal are shown.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show an elbow lever construction inside the bath and the locking mechanism in the power-plant room.

In FIG. 3 is shown in plan view in the lower half a variant with the rotating embodiment.

FIG. 4 shows diagrammatically the machine elements according to the invention in a power-plant room situated in a cellar space, which can also be constructed in the form of a well casing, wherein the whole mechanism can be installed and dismantled at the side of the bath.

FIG. 5 shows the same method of operation in accordance with the invention in which synchronisation by means of a scissor lifting-device, installed in the cellar, is ensured. The safety arrangement is not represented. It corresponds in essentials to the embodiment of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 shows the corrected grooved segment by which the tooth edges are brought into use simultaneously in order to avoid unnecessarily large lifts, which is true for groove and thread locking.

In FIG. 1, a bath space 1, in which is a height-adjustable false bottom 2, lies alongside a power-plant room 3, divided off by a separating wall 4. The hydraulic cylinder 5 with a piston rod 6 is coupled with a locking shaft 7. A locking shaft 7 is connected to a draw rod 8, which brings a wheel set 9 and therewith a curved lever 10 into lifting mode, and actuates the false bottom 2 through a roller 11. A bearing block 12 is supported by a connecting girder 13 directly to the hydraulic cylinder mechanism 5. A roller 14 is pressed elestically against the bath wall by means of an adjusting spring 15 in order to take over the lateral guidance of the platform. The opposite rollers are regulatable but constructed without spring elasticity.

A totally play-free seal 17 adapts itself by its own weight. The seal 17 adapts itself to the wall by means of the spring 18. A toothed segment block 19 engages the thread of the grooved shaft 7 if magnet 20 is not pulling. To one of the parts 6, 7 or 8 the regulatable speed sensor 21 is connected. The sensor 21 can conveniently and simultaneously show the liquid depth by a remote scale. Since, in the object of the invention, a slow sinking would have unacceptable consequences, particularly when embodied for use as an instructional swimming bath, in which 50 to 100 non-swimmers could drown, a directional sensor 22 of the locking shaft can impose the order to engage, whereby the end contact 23 switches off the current of the magnets 20. It will be seen that the bath walls have no depressions. The speed sensor 21 and/or the direction sensor 22 may be duplicated.

In FIG. 2 is shown an elbow lever lifting arrangement in which the machine elements according to the invention are constructed in the power-plant room as in FIG. 1. The tooth segment blocks 19 can also conveniently be brought into engagement on the locking shaft 7 or a toothed rack. The reversing in a crosshead guide 25 takes place through a roller guide 26. The connecting rod actuates an elbow lever 27 which is brought into synchronisation with rods 28. Non-rotatable tie rods 29, which can be arranged at any desired place between the elbow levers, take care of power balancing during unilateral loading.

In FIG. 3 a plan view is represented. In the lower side of the plan view is shown a rotary guide drive which is driven by a hydraulic mechanism 5 which by means of lever 30 drives a torsion rod 31 and thereby a lifting lever 27. The partition lead-through thereby takes up the bearing forces. A wheel 33 is locked by a similarly toothed counter wheel 34 which is axially slidable on the torsion bar 31 and is secured against turning by means of pins 35. According to local conditions and intended use, the rotary lead-through is brought into operation according to the invention.

In FIG. 4, the platform 2 is borne by ram 36 led through the partition wall 4 in a vertical direction. The partition wall 4 is supported on the flange of a well casing 37. Instead of on the well casing 37, the support can also take place on the cellar ceiling 38. This kind of embodiment requires a bath-side mounting. In the ram tube 36 is a hydraulic cylinder 39 which is supported on the bottom of the well casing 37. In order also to dissipate at the same time the forces to ground, the well casing can be supported from below by the sealing compound 40. In this embodiment, the locking can be conveniently constructed in such a way that the cylinder is constructed as having a toothed groove 41, the teeth of which the segment block teeth 19a can engage so as to lock.

The speed sensor 21a can be driven from the same grooved or threaded shaft and used for depth indication. The directional sensor 22a is driven frictionally through spring 42 in order to actuate circuit breaker 23. If the well casing embodiment can be coupled with a cellar operation, the driving unit is accommodated in the powerplant room. In a purely well casing embodiment, hydraulic energy supply 42 takes place through the bath space 1 and the partition wall 4. The locking arrangement can also be led through separately from the ram lead-through in a similar way.

In FIG. 5, scissor lifting device 43 provides, by way of rams 44 devoid of oil traces, the equalized lift for the false bottom 2. For this, the rams penetrate the partition wall 4a; bath and cellar space are provided with the drains 45 and 46. Locking, which can take place in the same way as is shown in FIG. 4, and the remaining machine elements are not shown.

In FIG. 6, the threaded or grooved shaft 7 is shown along with the multi-toothed locking block 19 having a tooth peak 47 and tooth root 48. Spring 49 serves for locking in if the magnet 20 is not energized.

I claim:

1. A bath comprising side walls and a bottom wall to form a liquid tight open-topped container; an immersible false fioor disposed above said bottom wall and supported from below; apparatus for adjusting the height of said false floor, said apparatus comprising oil operated hydraulic drive means located in a compartment external said liquid tight container and a transmission mechanism having at least one component free from oil contact extending through a wall of the liquid tight container which transmits movement from said hydraulic drive means to said false floor; and a seal which engages said component at the point where it extends through said wall to prevent the entry of liquid from said liquid tight container into said compartment.

2. A bath as claimed in claim 1 in which said bydraulic drive means is operatively connected to said transmission mechanism which includes at least one pivoted lever disposed beneath said false floor for lifting and lowering said false floor.

3. A bath as claimed in claim 1 in which said apparatus also comprises a locking device which acts on said hydraulic drive means.

4. A bath as claimed in claim 3 which further comprises a direction sensor and a speed sensor which are re- 5 6 sponsive to the movement of said component and which 3,232,015 2/1966 Latham 4-172VM control said locking device. 3,309,716 3/ 1967 Merritt 4-172VM 3,092,844 6/1963 Brunson 4172VM R fer s Cited 3,377,632 4/1968 Peterson -4-172VM UNITED STATES PATENTS 5 3,413,661 12/1968 Ross 4172VM 5:311:25? 35325 $33; 111111111111: 3-5531 LAVERNE GEIGER, Primary 3,052,893 9/ 1962 McClure 4172VM H. K. ARTIS, Assistant Examiner 

